Key Points
BENGALURU: Soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Gaganyaan Indias first human spaceflight mission on August 15, 2018, speculation was rife about who the potential astronauts could be and civilians, including women, had not been ruled out...
Although Isro was initially looking at all probable candidates for the first mission, TOI, within months of the PMs announcement, learnt and reported that all astronauts that will be part of the first crewed mission would be test pilots from the Indian Air Force (IAF), something both Isro and IAFs Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM) which was responsible for the selection confirmed later...
And test pilots, by virtue of their specialisations, have always been called upon to study deeply all that can probably go wrong in something that has not been tried before, Rakesh Sharma, Indias first astronaut, had told TOI earlier...
Others that TOI spoke with said test pilots were best suited to also diagnose failures quickly and execute commands from control stations...
Therefore, it wasnt a surprise when India selected four test pilots Group Captains Prashanth Nair, Ajit Krishnan, Angad Prathap and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla, who were bestowed with astronaut wings by PM Modi on Tuesday were selected...
